http://www.masswerk.at/google60/ It really was like this. We sometimes had to use hand held mechanical card punches, even in the late 70s. Thanks to Tim Berners-Lee on Twitter for this.
December 1960, Vol. 5 No. 7, Price: 2/-
A useful tool I rediscovered today…
The logo for the manufacturer, British Thornton, is one I hope will appear in that iPhone app everyone seems to be playing.
Yes, I am of an age that knows how to use one…
Written in galaxies. Thank you to Bizibuilder.
http://mygalaxies.co.uk
I was given in change a US quarter dollar presumably in mistake for a UK 10 pence piece…
It looked a little black like oxidised silver so I did a some research. Turns out that pre 1964 quarters are 90% silver and have a melt value of more than $5.
From Gemini 6 on 16th December 1965…
Thanks to How to Geek and buzzlab.
On December 16, 1965, while in orbit above planet Earth, the crew of Gemini 6 added another milestone to their already historic mission.
Astronauts Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford reported sighting an object, a satellite, in a “polar orbit…traveling North to South.”
“Stand by, he’s trying to signal something,” reported Schirra.
The next thing heard at Mission Control was a rendition of Jingle Bells performed by the astronauts using instruments which they had smuggled onboard.
The story is well known. The harmonica and string of bells are now housed at The Smithsonian, and the incident is believed to be the first time human beings ever played music in outer space.
But no recording of the song has ever been made available. Until now.
I’ve been looking all over the Internet for this recording for more than a year with no success. So I started asking for help.
KUOW reporter Phyllis Fletcher pointed me toward NASA’s Media Resource Center in Houston Texas.
After digging around their Web site and calling the phone tree at Johnson Space Center, I eventually reached Librarian Jody Russell. Her contacts in the Audio Department pointed me to the online archive for the entire Gemini 6 and 7 joint mission.
They narrowed it down to 8 audio files for me, which covered about 33 hours of the mission. They also provided me with links to mission transcripts that I could use as reference to find the song.
The message from NASA ended with “…it’s in there somewhere.”
And it was.
Enjoy!
Dark Was The Night – Cold Was The Ground was one of the musical tracks included on the Voyager Golden Record…
This self portrait is thought to be the first portrait photograph of a human…
Robert Cornelius took it outside of his family’s Philadelphia store in October or November 1839.
Great view of Discovery’s flight deck from 360VR.com…
http://360vr.com/2011/06/22-discovery-flight-deck-opf_6236/index.html
A collection of Simpsons clips that may be useful to science teachers.
At the 1961 Earls Court Russian Exhibition, Gagarin is interviewed by Richard Dimbleby and Tom Margerison of the Sunday Times. Boris Belitsky of Moscow Radio interprets.
First Orbit is a film commemorating the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gargarin‘s first spaceflight on 12th April 1961. Largely filmed from the International Space Station when it was travelling in a similar orbit to Gargarin’s it attempts to show what he would have seen. Its premiere is on YouTube on 12th April…
Rockin' Brian 